Can't Keep Secrets
by saintlythenerd
Summary: Right before Joe Carroll escapes from prison, Ryan Hardy has moment of clarity, of happiness if you will after the meeting of a younger woman. Just like in a fairy tale, the chemistry is perfect, but that is all shattered when Ryan receives that fatal call that will turn everyone's lives upside down once more and he will have to keep the woman a secret if he means to keep her alive
1. Chapter 1: Drunk Nights

It's Saturday, it's party night, at least for all your friends. You find yourself at home, alone, which is the same as always with a two liter of mountain dew and popcorn while you watch sci-fi movies. You're a twenty-two year old, pale as a ghost and this is the extent to your social life.

Well, that's what you thought until your phone rang.

"Get up and get dressed. Well be at your house in, oh, fifteen minutes tops." There was laughing in the background, your friends were already in route, in the car, were they serious? "We will drag you out of the house in what you're wearing, I don't care if they are those bright orange boxers you always wear around the house." Oh good, now everyone knew your choice in pajamas.

You laugh and hang up the phone, they can't be serious, right? You lean back on the couch and continue watching your movie, that's until you hear the revving of an engine, music blaring; You decide to peak outside. "SHIT! It's them!"

You couldn't believe it, maybe you could, but it didn't matter as you scrambled to find something decent to wear; something that involved black leggings, knee high combat boots and a short, cleavage revealing dress. Oh, your friends were going to love this, but it's what you had around, and secretly you liked looking cute.

Now you're at the bar, you call it that because it's too small to be a club, but it's relatively new so the place is packed, drinks are cheap and the food is great. You take your seat at the counter, ordering a shot of whisky because you honestly hated being out in public. You always thought people were judging you because of your pale skin and black hair, and you were the type that was far to paranoid for this kind of scene.

A few drinks later, whether you bought them or were doing shots with your friends, you were feeling good, your demeanor had changed and suddenly you were feeling like you could take on the world. That was when he popped down beside you, older, and probably Justas drunk as you were, you were fascinated with his blue eyes were looking through you as searched for the bar tender, and that subtle on his cheek, he was attractive.

"Two scotches."

The man said with a smirk and you looked away, so he was with a friend too. Of course he was, he was an attractive, older man. If he did see you, you were nothing more than a kid in his eyes. So you thought until the scotch was pushed in front of you.

"Didn't mean to stare."

He looked at you, and tipped his head before raising his glass.

"Too curses and doing things we don't want too."

He was still smirking, could he possibly tell you didn't want to be here? How did he know you weren't trying to pickup guys or girls by playing the I'm here all alone and lonely card? Just because you had not seen him until now, did not mean he hadn't seen you and your friends.

"What the hell." You grinned. "Cheers!"

Hours had to have gone by, you weren't far from your house and your friends had long since gone. You weren't sure if they forgot about you or if you waved them off.

"I should go."

You managed to breathe out right before falling off your stool, he tried to catch you but you only took him down with you.

You two laughed for a good minute before realizing he was on top of you and you were planting a hard kiss on his lips, the stubble scratching you but it felt good.

"M-my place, it's n-not far."

You sputtered out. Sex wasn't your thing but drinking made you hot to begin with and him on top of you, you suddenly needed him.

"Right."

He grinned again, using the stools to get up and then grabbing your hands and yanking you up.

Your wrapped an arm around his waist and he pulled you against his chest as he kept you close and the two of your stumbled out of the place, clearly there were eyes on the both of you, but it made you feel more bold, and you were proud of yourself all of a sudden. This was so out of your comfort zone it was obnoxious, how could you not be proud?

You don't know how you managed to get home but you did, and once the two of you were through the door, you were on your tiptoes trying to kiss him more and more as he held your face in his hands and led you to the first thing he could see, the couch.

He fell back on it, bring you down on top of him, and adjusting you so he was between your thighs and the two of you began grinding into one another as your tongues clashed.

It wasn't long before you were yanking off shirts, and kissing down shoulders, and chests, biting and sucking at necks and collar bones, hands moving to pants and soon you two found yourself together, it was the ecstasy you wanted.

Light filtered in through the windows, the tv was still on and you only blinked a few times before you felt lips against your forhead and then you realized you had fallen asleep after your exploits last night and you had slept well.

"I'm Ryan, Ryan Hardy." The man purred, his voice was seductive and you weren't sure if he had enjoyed last night as much as you or he was groggy.

"Hi Ryan." You smiled, and you were sure your cheeks flushed bright red. "I'm Mirra."

"Pleasure… and so was last night."

That's it, you were gone, but he spoke again.

"Breakfast?"

"I'd love too."


	2. Chapter 2: Happy Endings

It had been one of those odd night Ryan had went out, ever since locking up Joesph "Joe" Carroll, leaving Claire Matthews, and pushing his sister Jenny away, there was nothing left to him but the empty alcohol bottles that littered his New York flat. Of course, none of this was mentioned to Mirra as he stared at his over cooked eggs and found himself slipping into darkness. She was saying something, but he was hardly listening.

"I'm sorry."

Your voice seemed harder and he looked up to meet your eyes, you were sad, but he couldn't figure out why.

"Last night must have been quite a different scene for you and I'm young and all but I do know who you are and I'm sorry. You can go if you want, we really didn't have to come out at all."

Ryan was speechless, you were reading him like a book.

"H-how?"

"I don't matter much and I spend a lot of time on my own."

Your voice was quiet again.

It was his turn to say he was sorry, but he couldn't his eyes just flickered away and then back to you. He genuinely like you, last night was no accident, waking up feeling refreshed was the best thing that had happened to him in awhile and here he was feeling bad for himself and taking you with him.

"Come on."

He half smiled as he threw a wad of cash on the table and grabbed your hand pulling you up and leading you out of the cafe.

"Where?"

He only smiled at you, his eyes had lit up a bit and you were completely confused.

It wasn't long before you recognized where he was dragging you, there really was only one place around here of interest and it was the park. Suddenly, you were grinning from ear to ear, you never really went on your own, it was a couples and family thing, even reading on a bench made you feel awkward.

For some reason, Ryan chanced a look back at you, he was bewildered by your smile and stopped suddenly, knowing he would catch you off guard and you would trip right into his arms and he would pull you in for a deep kiss.

You thought this was perfect and chemistry that bonded like this only existed in fairy tales.

However, your moment was broken by a ringing phone.

"My apologies…"

He murmured as he pulled it out, no one ever called him so either his publicist was bugging him or something was wrong.

"This is Hardy."

You watched as his jaw dropped and face went white as a ghost.

"Wh-what?"

He stuttered, you knew it was bad and you took a step away from him to give him some space as he clicked the phone shut.

"What's wrong Ryan?"

"Joe Carroll escaped, the FBI wants me back."

Subconsciously he rubbed the scar on his chest, and you understood.

"This was too good to be true."

You mumbled quietly, your fairy tale just turned into a nightmare. There would be no more Ryan for you to finally be yourself around.

"No."

He growled and grabbed you and pulled you against him. Even in the last twenty-four hours he felt good, better than he ever had and he didn't want to give that up, give you up. Somewhere in him he hoped holding you tightly would make everything go away.

"I'm not going anywhere. When you need a break, come find me."

You smiled up at him. You knew there was no way anyone was going to replace him, you weren't some girl that hopped from one guy to the next.

Ryan's phone was ringing again, not it could be any slew of people, agents, people that were involved int the case, everyone's past was coming back to haunt them but all he could think of was you, and how Joe Carroll could not find out about you.

"Keep a low profile Mirra, don't tell anyone about us."


	3. Chapter 3: Stalker

Evening rolled around, and instead of being curled up on the couch you were pacing your living room back and forth, your computer was on the couch and papers, books, as well as Ryan Hardy's and Joe Carroll's littered the floor. You were no detective and the six months of college didn't count for shit, but you were good at reading things, people, and with your new found flame, you were going to do what you could from the sidelines, besides, with Ryan suddenly gone, there was a hole you needed to fill.

Joe Carroll was a dark man, and though you enjoyed literature and the romantic period quite a bit, the videos of his classes you had seen on YouTube bored you. No, that wasn't right, you found him annoying, over bearing and seemingly compensating for something, and the way he puckered his lips when he said certain words, it bothered you.

You were sure you were the minority in the populace of swooning woman that commented below the video, some as recent as _"Track me down, I'll kill for you."_ And _"I don't like my eyes, do me the honors?"_ These had been posted mere hours ago, it was clear the nation was already re-rooted in the serial killer that was and still is Joe Carroll.

It wasn't long before you stumbled on the case reports that you had printed out and the newspapers you kept from 2003 and 04, that the name Sarah Fuller popped out to you and all you could think was that Carroll was coming back to finish the job, that her and Ryan were next.

Sarah got away.

Ryan had been the end of Joe.

It made sense that there was a final act and a finale.

Oh But she knew better, she was grinning as she sat in her car, previously watching the dark, brown haired woman come in with a pile of books; lucky for her she had dropped the receipt and could see what was checked out, psychology, the effects of alcoholism, cannibals, cults and serial killers. They were all fascinating reads, the woman was sure, but she was surer about how much Joe would love to hear about the young woman.

"Oh Ryan."

Mirra murmured as she looked at everything before her again. The feeling to fly to DC and hoop up was the FBI was great. She hated the fact that she had to sit around, not that it was something she wasn't used to or anything, but she found a new will, and then it was stripped from her.

"_Hello honey. Yes, make sure Jordy finds a way to see Joe. Let him know the ex wife is out of Hardy's picture. He should know what it means. Jordy's an idiot, can't relay to much. Yes, I love you too"._


End file.
